"Our analysis reveals an ancestral gene regulatory feedback loop connecting Brachyury, FoxA and canonical Wnt signalling involved in axial patterning that predates the cnidarian–bilaterian split about 700 million years ago. Surprisingly, we also found that part of the gene regulatory network controlling the fate of neuromesodermal progenitors in vertebrates was already present in the common ancestor of cnidarians and bilaterians."